Critically Endangered
Around the World in 80 Days - Day 21
Phileas Fogg is now heading across India by rail.
Sadly, this fish is expected to go extinct, possibly within a single generation. They are already extinct in 90% of their original range. They are not just at risk from pollution, sand extraction, dynamite fishing, dams, and habitat degredation, but from the non-native Blue-finned Mahseer. It was introduced to the area, and though they seem very similar, they are doing much better than the Orange-finned ones, and are taking over. Most of the articles I saw while researching this fish mentioned that they are superb fighters and an exciting catch for anglers, an "iconic sport fish". Thankfully in at least one area angling is not allowed anymore, but that is only a small part of the problem. They are a large fish, the record I found for one was 130 pounds.
My husband joked that I must have been slow painting today because I was only able to catch the tail of the fish. I know it is not a normal sort of fish picture, but I really wanted to mix things up.
The picture here is of a file I made with some of what I have found for the animal I will be painting on day 48 of the mini series (spoilers). The red check marks are on the only 2 pictures I've found so far of the species, I put an X on some of the ones I am using as references but that are not the right species. I will end up using another 20 or so websites most likely, I try to learn all I can about the animals I'm painting. There are not a lot of pictures in comparison to some of the animals I've painted. When there are lots of pictures of an animal, such as the Hawksbill Turtle, I may have 20 or even 30 references to work from. I wish all the animals I paint had a lot of photos and information about them. Thankfully I have had very few that have not had any reference pictures or information about them. I enjoy the challenge of painting ones that don't have any pictures, but it certainly is nice when I can see examples.